While living in the Niagara Frontier region and studying for his master's, he sort of backed into a journalism career with a part-time position as an editorial assistant at Night & Day, the weekly entertainment supplement for the Niagara Gazette, the daily newspaper in Niagara Falls, New York. After moving to the Western Reserve, this led to a position, first as a stringer and then as an actual reporter, in the Beachwood office of the Sun Newspapers chain of suburban weeklies. Upon returning to New York State, he covered the city and town of Newburgh for another weekly, the Mid-Hudson Times.

For putting forth the time and effort to take great pictures and improve countless articles on New York towns, roads, and landmarks, I award you the Photographer's Barnstar. Kafziel 13:41, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

For creation of Hunter Mountain Fire Tower, fire towers have to be among the oddest listings on the National Register of Historic Places. I once saw a landfill on there, but that's another story. Good work. IvoShandor 18:50, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

I've come across quite a few horrendous road articles in AFD lately, so I'm was very pleasantly surprised to find Old Albany Post Road on DYK. Keep up the good work. P.S. I used to be the most prolific editor to DYK, so expect some stiff competition, I want that record back :) Mgm|(talk) 12:10, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

The Original Barnstar

Thank you for your fine work over the years, in blocking vandals and helping new users getting used to Wikipedia. I thank you for your hard work, Daniel! Arbiteroftruth (talk) 20:19, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

The Special Barnstar

Daniel, you really are a great person. Both on and off wiki. A diligent article writer, good friend and great father. I really respect you. :) SamBlab 23:51, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

The Defender of the Wiki Barnstar

A big thank you for dealing with all those vandals and deleting pages during the time non-admins couldn't edit! :) Versus22talk 20:43, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

The Admin's Barnstar

I went to WP:UAA, and noticed that you were either discussing with or waiting on four users to edit. I just wanted to give you this barnstar to show you that I appreciate that. You are a diligent and kind admin.I dream of horses (talk) 19:30, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

Awarded to Daniel Case for suggesting I quit editing for the evening - Editing after a long and tiring day was definitely not one of my best ideas. Thanks! -FASTILY(TALK) 23:42, 1 August 2009 (UTC)

The Original Barnstar

Thanks very much for your peer review and all of your additions to "City of Blinding Lights". The article looks a lot better now and it would definitely be lacking were it not for you. Thank you so much for all of your work! MelicansMatkin(talk, contributions) 07:06, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

The Barnstar of David

For your work in creating fascinating articles on the unusual synagogues of the Catskills. Jayjg (talk) 00:58, 8 March 2010 (UTC)

This barnstar is awarded for outstanding contributions in the realm of photography. Photos you have taken are among some of the best illustrations out there. This particular photo of the Central Park West Historic District stands out as a great way to illustrate multiple buildings. It's really an iconic skyline there at CPW and your photo really captures that. Thanks for all you do. IvoShandor (talk) 06:39, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

For your work at the UAA. Keep up the good work and happy holidays! -- Luke(Talk) 22:04, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

The Writer's Barnstar

For your tireless work to improve and write excellent articles on NRHP sites in New York! Pubdog (talk) 01:01, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

The Admin's Barnstar

Excellent work at WP:UAA. You always manage to get through the backlogs! Chip123456 (talk) 13:45, 24 June 2012 (UTC)

The Real Life Barnstar

Just read this email - you have no idea how much it cheered me up after a long flight :). I'm really glad people found the session so productive; I'm thinking of holding a longer one next year as a dedicated thing, since the format seems to work really well. Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 14:43, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

The Rosetta Barnstar

Thank you for your work in translating that Bulgarian document for me! I really appreciate it. Activism1234 19:31, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

The Admin's Barnstar

For responding to an AIV post almost 12 hours after it had been posted (and overlooked for several admins), I hereby award you this barnstar. Congrats! :) Neutralhomer • Talk • 21:08, 21 September 2012 (UTC)

Congratulations on reaching 100000 edits. You have achieved a milestone that very few editors have been able to accomplish. The Wikipedia Community thanks you for your continuing efforts. Keep up the good work!

Many thanks for your excellent edits to the Hermann Stieve article. Adding the back-stories of the Nazi victims whose deaths Stieve exploited was an excellent idea. Adding their photographs emphasizes their humanity and heroism and contrasts this with Stieve's dehumanization of them. The Anome (talk) 15:41, 9 November 2013 (UTC)

The Admin's Barnstar

You are a very busy admin. Your mop certainly tells the tail - I think you may want to get a new one. You've helped keep Wikipedia clean - sometimes so clean I thought it sparkled! Keep it sparkling and I may need to wear sunglasses from now on - but the good thing is vandals will be blinded as soon as they enter! Hey, not a bad idea! Here's a barnstar for hard-work - and hey, there's a new mop on it! K6ka (talk | contribs) 00:55, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

For Open-crotch pants‎. Each addition you make to that article is more astonishing that the last. I was gobsmacked by the pig-dog-"Quick! To the hospital!" bit. Horrifying!!!! You are amazing! Anna Frodesiak (talk) 01:30, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

The Editor's Barnstar

You're doing really well on the Geographical Name Changes in Turkey. Crossark (talk) 19:12, 24 December 2014 (UTC)

Hey, I just saw Disappearance of Leah Roberts in the queue for DYK and clicked on it because it caught my eye me and I wanted to know more. It's a great and well written article and it was really interesting. I think you should take it to GA. I really enjoyed reading it. — ₳aron 11:25, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

The Resilient Barnstar

For standing firm and keeping your resolve to fight for something in the face of great resistance and negativity simply because it was the right thing to do. You have my respect. -- WV ● ✉✓ 03:38, 16 April 2015 (UTC)

It's rare to see such high-quality articles on Wikipedia about generalist film and cinematic techniques -- as opposed to the majority of GAs we have related to film about individual films, fictional characters and episodes.

Both are good things to have.

But it's refreshing to see your high-quality contribution in this unique area.

DYK-related

Congratulations! Here's a medal for you in appreciation of your hardwork in creating, expanding (and nominating) 25+ articles for DYK. Keep up the good work as I see you are around fifty now. Well done again, Daniel Case! --Victuallers (talk) 17:51, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Awarded to Daniel Case, congratulations on 50 fine DYK contributions! Keep up your great work with DYK! It is most appreciated. Given with respect and admiration, Ruhrfisch><>°° 20:30, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your first hundred. Keep up the good work. I must say that I have admired your contributions both in terms of articles and in verifications and debates. Thanks Victuallers (talk) 21:34, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

I notice you have been doing the grudge work of verifying length and references for potential DYK choices. For that often thankless task I award you this Working Man's Barnstar. -- Boston (talk) 18:04, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

The Original Barnstar

You've been working incredibly hard over at T:TDYK! Thanks for taking on that exhausting task. delldottalk 00:45, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

The Barnstar of Diligence

Is given to Daniel Case because even after over 2,000 edits to T:TDYK, he still checks every hook under the same criteria and is unyielding in the quality and consistency of his reviews, thanks for all of the great work :). Mifter (talk) 02:56, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

The Tireless Contributor Barnstar

Given with respect and admiration to Daniel Case on the occasion of your 350th article to appear in the Did You Know section of the Main Page, and for all your work with that project and on Wikipedia in general. Keep up the good work! Yours, Ruhrfisch><>°° 15:07, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

This medal is given with respect and admiration to Daniel Case on the occasion of your 500th DYK! Keep up the amazing good work, Ruhrfisch><>°° 15:23, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

The 501 Barnstar

I am happy to award this special barnstar to you on the occasion of your 501st DYK. Your 500th was a wonderful hook, like a visual fugue, and as you embark on your second 500, a barnstar is in order. Of course, in addition to your impressive DYK work, your contributions in many other areas are also greatly appreciated! MANdARAX•XAЯAbИAM 02:28, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

Best "Only on Wikipedia" quotation, ever ...

“

As elves are not real creatures, I would like to know why I have been blocked.

Milestones

My 5000th edit. First milestone I've really gotten to notice in time celebrate. Who could have imagine it would have been something so minor as adding the FA star to any article I otherwise had nothing to do with?

10,000th edit The biggie: Five figures. This was actually something substantive, the addition of a further reading section (i.e., works I came across while researching the subject that I could not physically or virtually get a hold of, so I'm putting them here so the work doesn't go to waste) to an article about a Supreme Court case.

11,000th edit A talk page message to someone else ... first time I've made note of an editing milestone in the edit itself.

Stories behind some of the articles

Geography

You'll notice that a great deal of the userboxes at right deal with projects connected to geographical locations: rivers, mountains, lakes, protected areas, roads and hiking trails. Hardly surprising, since it was my "other" major in college. And indeed I see a connection between the two. I've always found writing about places to be the most pleasant writing I do, to convey the essence of a somewhere in words.

This has really come alive in writing the route descriptions for road articles. Roads to me tell a story of the country they pass through, and I try to convey that within the limits of encylopedia style. TwinsMetsFan has chosen many of the articles for which I've written route descriptions as NYSR featured articles and singled out the prose as a reason why. I'm flattered, but of course I understand. To see some of my personal favorites in that department, there's not only the US 9 former good article, there's also US 6, NY 52, NY 55 and NY 208 (Notice that it helps that they are also well illustrated).

The Catskills and hiking

Explained above. I created Category:Catskills and created or added in significant part to almost all of them. And there's a lot more to come. Sometime.

Hiking, too, is another area still not covered very well here. This led to creating Category:Hiking equipment and Category:Hiking organizations, taking the photo of hiking boots. I have worked on, and created, a bit in both. I would start a WikiProject:Hiking for this but I really don't have time, and I tend to range all over the place, anyway. (For one thing, a trail construction and maintenance article could be split from trail, and trail blazing (which I expanded and added a lot of images to, could really do with not only a cleanup (it looks like someone dropped their photos all over it) but perhaps a renaming and expansion to include signage as well.

Trails is probably the best thing we've got going. Check out the project page, which has been established since I first wrote that there wasn't a project. (I like that it uses a picture I took in the userbox)

Probably we'll have to really get far along on WikiProject:Mountains first, though (and speaking of which, I've done and continue to do most of the work on Slide Mountain, which I hope to take to peer review and FA someday.

I'm very proud of Long Path, a creation of mine that is probably the most thorough of any hiking trail article on Wikipedia.

New York state highways

I've always loved exploring my adopted home state via car. I have seen much of it yet so much more remains. And I've always been fascinated by roads when I would read maps as a child. I liked the shapes they made, and wondered what it was like at particular places I hadn't been to. When I grew up I was able to explore them.

I didn't, however, know that there were others like this, and that there was a word for them until I got to editing Wikipedia. So when I found out about the New York State highways project, I wasted no time signing up. Creating and improving articles about the many roads I was familiar with, and some I wasn't, accounted for much of my editing back in spring 2006. I would bet that of any WikiProject I'm involved with, this would account for the most edits.

A few of the articles for which I have written route descriptions and taken or found photographs have become selected articles of the project, and on May 17, 2007, U.S. Route 9 in New York, an article myself and several other editors had beefed up a couple of months earlier, became the project's first Good Article.

In December 2007, I was asked to rewrite the route description for NY 22, the only north-south route in the state longer than US 9. It, too, has made GA, and I was awarded a barnstar for the rewrite.

While I wasn't looking, User:Mitchazenia developed NY 32, whose route description I had banged out one day at work, and for which I have taken most of the photos, to GA status as well. He went further, and on June 17, 2008, it became the first FA I can legitimately claim part of the credit for. So I did. On July 7, it was on the Main Page, sparking a lively discussion about why some two-lane state road was somehow important enough to be on the Main Page.

As I mentioned on the article's talk page, color me sacrilegious but I finally started drinking soda thanks to New Coke. It still seems, in hindsight, like the perfect medium between the tastes of Pepsi and Coke. I would love just one more can of Coke II.

So I looked this one up in summer 2005, and found it a disparate collection of facts. One of the external links tells the whole story of how Coke made its decision (which you can really understand) and I decided to rewrite the article to tell that story.

That storytelling, which has since been, as I knew it would be, edited down, got a lot of praise, which pleasantly surprised me. Its structure is still intact in the final article, even if the narrative twists have been hammered out. The article got linked from the Main Page on the anniversary of Classic Coke's reintroduction, perhaps because of the work I'd done on it in the weeks before, and still seems to draw a lot of interest (which means vandalism, too ... of all the articles I've put my stamp on, it gets the most).

On September 7, 2006, all the work I've put into it was rewarded when it received good article status. I hope eventually to improve it further, take it to peer review and then FA. Even though it was delisted a year and a half later due to my concentrating on other articles, I still have plenty of research I haven't added to it yet, and I think it could easily be brought back to its former glory. When I have the time.

The Devil Wears Prada

In early 2005, a friend of ours shipped us some books she'd finished with and thought we might be interested in. The only one that struck me that way was The Devil Wears Prada, since I have a bit of a soft spot for popular chick lit, gender notwithstanding. I read it in three days and, still a few months new to Wikipedia, decided immediately to write an article about it.

What emerged, and is still there, reflects that era of Wikipedia and my tendencies as an editor at the time. I borrowed the template that I had sort of created for myself when doing The Lovely Bones a couple of months before. Like that one, it's a fascinating and comprehensive look at the book, but with an overly long plot summary and some critical commentary that borders on (and probably is) original research. At that time we weren't clear about how that applied to articles about literary works; today we wouldn't have it. Eventually I'll sit down and bring it in line with the novels project standards.

Later that year the film version was shot; by early 2006 it was clear that there was enough out there about it to warrant a separate article. I created it, added whatever information was available prerelease and then, when the film came out, saw it and wrote pretty much the entire beginnings of the "differences" section later that night. I also added the reviews and, most importantly, references that same night. Later I rented and watched the extras on the DVD. I probably know more about the novel than anyone except Lauren Weisberger and more about the film than anybody except the people who made it. On May 17, 2008, despite not being as complete and finished as I would have liked, it was listed as a Good Article.

That last decision has made it so much easier to upgrade the article into what it is now, my other current favorite for future featured status. It would have been so much harder if I had written it and then gone back in to put in references (as I did with New Coke and some other articles). The new emphasis on references and citations may be a pain for older articles but, with those started under that system, it is much easier to build it up to a good quality.

It also became necessary to create an article on the soundtrack album in the process, and (while I have nothing to really do with it), someone else did an article on the forthcoming TV show. Could a video game be next?

Anna Wintour

In the course of working on it, I also began expanding the article on the inspiration for Miranda Priestly, Vogue editor Anna Wintour. It grew and grew — I found her a fascinating subject. I had no plans to put it up for recognition until after I had finished with the Devil Wears Prada movie article, but in early March 2007 an assessor from the biography project gave it an A-class rating. So I accelerated my plans for it, putting it first in biography peer review. I was ready to nominate it for GA when another user did (just like New Coke ... always flattering when that happens), and on May 13 it was added to the GA list.

A WPBIO reassessment gave it a more legit A-class later. After waiting to see The September Issue on DVD, I made the additions and finally took it to FAC. It was not promoted, but I feel I can address the reasons for the failure and get it to the gold-star level.